Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-03-03

Which yCu can travel2 Do yOf understand tina
il ~ substance that DESTROYS land for agcs. tha
| nothing grows where il flows bat willows, IN
! roots gf which reach down to moisture, and il
| many eases even willows will not gsoW upon it
| that II cracks in the summer season 50 that yol
| dare NOS ride q horse. and cannot drive Nri
| over il that you can hardly walk over it will
safety and in the rainy season that IL is nerfec
sIush that no one can get tsrUagh or ovef2
They tel rs they Will hold this kind of mate
| rlal behind these dams thAt It Will imbei il
self clear Gown to the rocks and the soil aut
| become harder than the moapiains themScve.
| before they are washed by m!aing. DO you he
lieYe it, have travelled tnroHgh this kind o.
m0terlul, sir; have been obi Ged to wade in
TINS material I have been jeIsed out of my
buggy into this material and puzzled through it
aud know whereof | speak. How can mes
having the interests of the great State of Cali
fornia nj heart, men having the Interests of the
great cities OF California, come AcTt as TeI-
resentatiVe men ~Gd study IL bill ike that aud
vote for 1t, while the rivers are being destroyed
while the harhOT of San Fra" cisco Is being de
stToycd while tne bar is forming asit-ide the
Golden Gate. so that it is becoming serious
task TO enter the lrafbOr without pilass@ How
can such men come here, ask and vote for a
blli that VIII legaliZe and aid those who have
| been doing this nHlance TO pCs hun
dredS and thousands, and millions and
millions of tons of that debTs behind
n dam, who. when their mine shall
have been worked out and when the dams
shall have grown old and CTumbling they will
find q paltry sum in the Treasury to protect the
structure for "a few years more. Granting that
II may say there for tivC or ten or fifteen or
twenty years, we all believe that it viii come
down upon this valley eventually like deluge
and destroy it. How men can 50 vote is some
thing more than | can understand. If you put
a dam III the NarrOwS twelve fifteen mile :
above MarySville, where he stream is running
with 100 feet fall to the mile dam 100 feet
high, that city, already surrounded 10y a levee
system which is dangerous 10 the people living
under It. even under the present system viii be
menaccd vastly more aud its very existence uut
III peril. Dnyuu want 10 do that. when We have
seen IN the last year That by stopping these large
hydraulic mines, our river cuts out its channel
and Wishes 50 That in Il few years If Won will
stop this continual putting into the river. our
streams VIII have channels again, and large
steamers can rIu to MarySvillc, rs | have seen
them do in the early days.
Mr.. Pre-, idenJ 1 nave seen. and 50 have vou.
sir, the largest steamers running up 10 the city
OF Marysyllle; running up the Euba river, sir.
and landing at the 1Oot OF ID street and dis
charging their freight when it had to be pulled
up an incline of from 2l to - feet Now, sir.
The bed of that stream is entirely ohliteraicd
and the channel is as high as the streets of
MarySYille. Why sir, in 1879 that city was
flooded, and We had to send aid from this civ
TO help lis people. Those who had houses OF
two stories were driven into the upper. Goods
were ruined in great quantity, and grist mills
were destroyed, because the property is sur
rounded 10y Il levee. When once il breaks and
the water gets in it cam get out In lSSl after
having increased the size and the hight OF our
IcNec every year by eNpeEduy thousand Of dol
lars and creating large debts, there came upon
the people II Hood the very Hood that washed
out the brush dams the State built in the l-uha
and Bear rivers and citizens of Maysville 800
strong, turned ont and worked upon their
leyees all night while the storm was rcltug
them. Lawyers, doctors and Judges went out
ana carried sand and dirt upon thu,r leVees 10
keep the water from running over and break
ing through AMI fpo1ing their homes. Il was
running over then. Nr President and I; they
had not been there with sacks and sand to uiIc
upon that levee top, their homes would then
aud there have been destroyed.
Do you think, gentlemen, that We want some
dams put up there to load up with mil ions of
tons OF this Internal slicEcns and debris tu CON c
down upon Us, as 1t Will at one tell blow and
sweep us out OF existence Sir yuu can go
along the banks of Bear river on v hat was the
third bench of and-not The meadow laud: tut
there was once a second bench and then there
was third bench Of high land, red land-and
rs Won ride you can see the t0ubstOncS covered
to their tops i'll the burying-groundS that were
placed there years ago, and now lust visible
above the water. You need ONLY GO one mile
from c. F. BeTTy'S ranch to see that DO YOU
think that when travel there and see the
monument that | erected to my brother covered
to within six inches of the top that do not feel
that we are being destroyed? How can YOU
come here ana vote for bill of this kind to Ii
cense the millionaireS and cold corporations
which imteSt this state from foreign lands to
come here and erect their hydraulic works and
drive streams of water through hydraulic mon
a little strata of pay dirt-peIhapS six or eight
fcet-that could be taken out by the drifting
process and give employment to ten men where
they are working one now?
Talk about its iniuring the laboring classes OF
the mountains, if these hydraulic monitors were
stopped-bccause You must understand that il
only takes a very few men Why, the work is
done with powder aud with the force of water.
When these clays too hard to wash away
with these vast 81 cams of water that would
knock down a building like this Capitol in a
. l. IL. ! - -. Al.
one charge lOOsening up this dirt. | have heard
many a blast ten or twelve miles away. II Is
like ln earthquake. They put into This pipe
clay aud soil thousands OF kegs nt powder !
say thousands of kegs Of powder, because
have heard often of their putting in 100 and
= ulJ kegs at one blast, setting il of, loOScuing
up this earth. and then pouring in water from
their monitors by night and by day. l have
ben in these mines, Illuminated by electric
lights, with three or four monitors running
upon Il mountain, washing, day and night, this
base material down upon the valley lands.
desire to say right here that | do not speak
with any prejudice against the mining classes.
| think as much of a miner as do OF suy
other man. rs long as he keeps within the
bounds OF law and right and justice II he wlll
50 use his property OF no. to destroy miue-u
law maxim that they have always recognized
among themsclVcS-uOt GLOWING YOU Mr.
President, to Iuu YOUR debris down upon "a man
below YOU. or back water from your land upon
that Of man above YOU The law was made by
the miners themselves. They lived mp to It
among themselves, but they devised this pro-
cess OF hydraulic mining, ana these monitors
were invented about the year 1867, and when
they secured these appliances. so that they
could melt The mountains down with such
rapidity, then We began here. who had no said
anything against mlnlng-WC began to see our
riycts ii ling up. We beg 10 see our farms
destroyed. PM we forebore doing anything
until about he year lSs., or about the year 1875
then the keyCS SGit was brought against the
hydraui miucrs.
Kcyes was beaten in the Supreme Court be
cause IT he d that he could not enjOin several
mines together: that he could not prove which
mine was doing the da1nsge.
ask how We are 70 prove what dam is doing
the damage. when they have built Al series of
dams i'll all the rivers? How shall We prove
that il is this corporation Of J.. L. RobiuSOu'S or
that of Mr.. Walrl' h or any o;ber corporation
that is sending this debris down upon us They
are simply piling it up there to come down up Ii
us. sooner or later, aud all NJ once. About the
wear 1877 or ls7S-lS7S | thiuk-Ihe kcycS suit
was brought and he was beaten. which nut Us
back IN our fight against the hydraulic miners
tor years. In 1850 the Legislature met here
and . bill was passed for rectilyinE these
channels and building dams My friend,
Senator Walrath, stated the other day
on this floor that that wss the greatest
fraud ever ioiStcd Upon the country: that that
was a bill thnt was got through the Legls-
ature by Bill ParS> Il Company" and that it
proved to be a curse 10 the miners. and that il
was hUmhug and intended o be a hunbug ut
the time lhcSc dams were built. Now. | want
"
undertund that particular thing, for ! was in
the Legislature that winter he miners got UD
that scheWc, They brought it here. They came
here. They mad their lobbyists in this build
ing 10 push through the scheme, and they did
actually prOp0se IA bond twelve counties that lay
in this watershed with an unlimited amount
of bonds. that the Commissioners. as soon as
the engineer should make his report Of what
these dams should rot. should 90 on and issue
bonds OF an unlimited amount 10 do This work.
never worked so hard IN my life as did
that winter to defeat that scheme. did not
desire 10 have my county and the neighboring
counties around me put under debt Of millions
of dollars TO do this work. The people on the
outside who were not intereSted-aud just the
same thipg happens tO-day-Sad This is a
great industry the miners have made this
country and we must protect them" one N, m
ber, I recollect. and | see him here upon this
and he said TO rs &" Will never vote cent of
money from the State to build you levees aud
build YOU dams, while I am legislator. If you
want to lie there supinely on your backs and do
nothing to protect yourselves you can be Gov
cred up for ought care"
Well in the wisdom of the miners and the
farmers they saw fit to take that Legislature,
both Senate and Assembly, in three ears aud
take them to the town OF Marysville. And there
the river to see the dam sites, aud some Of them
went rs far SmartsYille. They saw the SUI
rounded country that was TO he protected. hey
saw the vast lcyees that the industry of the peO-
ple had bui about them, and they came back,
aud the gentleman who had spoken 80 loudly
in regard to our being covered up without re-
slstailce apoiosiZed to me and said: why, you
ought to have gone through my scalp right then
and there. l didn't know anything about your
a;.ua,inu am rgnay now TO vote state aid to